CASPER - A 37-year-old Casper woman charged with stabbing her husband in the neck as he fed their young son faces arraignment in Natrona County District Court.
The mother of two also allegedly hit herself with a sledgehammer to make it look as if she was physically abused by her husband, according to a Natrona County Sheriff’s Office affidavit.
Tabatha Richardson is charged with one count of aggravated assault and battery.
Court records show that Natrona County Sheriff’s Office deputies were called by both the husband and wife to a residence in the 3300 block of Allendale in Casper on Dec. 9 for a reported stabbing. Richardson told deputies it occurred while protecting herself from physical abuse by her husband.
Richardson told the 911 dispatcher that her husband “was on the couch and I just walked by him and he started attacking me.”
In Richardson's husband’s call, he reported that he had just been stabbed in the neck without “provocation” and he was afraid for the safety of his children.
Interviews with both Richardson and her husband were conducted at Banner Wyoming Medical Center where they sought treatment, the affidavit states.
Sheriff’s Investigator Cory Brooks wrote that Richardson stated in an interview that her husband punched her in the ribs and scratched her while she held her son in her right arm. She said she pulled a lock-blade folding knife from her bra with her left hand and pushed the button to make the blade flip out.
She then allegedly stabbed her husband on the right side of his neck to get him off her.
She told Brooks that he then stood up, grabbed his neck and left the residence.
Neck Pain
The husband told Brooks that he and Richardson were going through a divorce and he was there to visit with his children. He had made a bottle for his son and held him while feeding him.
After his son was full, he placed the bottle to the side and was holding him to get him to go to sleep when he heard Richardson make a remark and then he felt something on the right side of his neck.
“(The husband) felt his neck with his hand and saw that there was blood on his hand,” Brooks wrote. The husband told the investigator he laid his son on the couch and that Richardson stabbed at him again and missed him.
He told Brooks that he left the house, went to his pickup, and called 911. Once law enforcement arrived, he was transported to the hospital.
Both husband and wife agreed to provide police with a digital download of their phones.
Deputies obtained a warrant to search the house, and an investigation of the home found baby clothes, a blanket with blood stains and a black folding knife with a stain on the blade. The husband also told police that security cameras were on the exterior of the home.
A search of Richardson’s phone found she had sent “a lengthy string” of messages to herself about women who had been physically abused and had tagged social media articles and videos about how to testify in court about physical abuse.
Investigators also found a security camera from the home had been removed from the exterior and taken to a bedroom where Richardson and her daughter were in the room. About 2 1/2 hours before her husband arrived at the home, she was seen on camera with a small sledgehammer in her right hand. Her shadow was then seen swinging the sledgehammer hitting her back, shoulders, and left rib area, the affidavit states.
“It appeared on the video that the sledgehammer was swung with just enough force that it would leave a mark on a person,” the affidavit states. The video also showed a small blue and yellow concrete chisel sitting on the stand with the camera.
Richardson was asked to visit the sheriff’s office for photos of her injuries and investigators saw that the bruises were round and similar to the size of the sledgehammer, Brooks wrote.
Hammer For ‘Treatment’
On Dec. 12, Richardson told Brooks that she hit herself with the sledgehammer because it was a treatment for a chronic condition for which she had been diagnosed and not to fake any injuries. She also told the investigator she returned the sledgehammer and chisel to the garage to keep her husband from getting angry. She said he would get upset if his tools were out of place.
A search warrant for the garage found the sledgehammer on the floor of the garage “placed into a small space between a refrigerator and pieces of cardboard as if a person would try and conceal it,” Brooks wrote. The chisel could not initially be found, but after Richardson was asked about it and had moved a sleeping bag, the investigator found it underneath the sleeping bag.
During another interview on Dec. 12, Richardson admitted to hitting herself to protect herself and her children from her husband. She also confessed to scratching herself with the chisel.
She was asked to show how she stabbed her husband with just one hand using a knife that did not have a spring assist on it — but was just a common lock blade knife, according to police records.
“Richardson repeated to investigators that she opened it with one hand by pushing the button but demonstrated how to open the knife with two hands,” the affidavit states.
Communication downloaded from Richardson’s phone showed concern that because of her medical condition she might lose custody of her children. She also believed her husband had started another relationship prior to his seeking a divorce.
The affidavit also stated a search warrant for medical records revealed that communication with her physician in November stated there was no physical abuse by her husband though she was worried about the divorce and losing her children.
In January, Richardson alleged that her husband had abused her for the past 18 years, the affidavit states.
A search of the husband’s phone found nothing to indicate he had been abusive to Richardson, the affidavit states.
Brooks wrote that his investigation learned that Richardson’s physician never recommended “hitting yourself with a sledgehammer” as treatment for her condition and specifically recommended a massage gun or massage hands.
Court records show that Richardson is free after posting 10% of her $30,000 cash or surety bond.
An arraignment date has not yet been set.
Aggravated assault and battery carries a potential penalty of 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.
